18/03/2026
Introducing Design Matters — an exhibition in Mid Wales celebrating the work of British furniture designer David Colwell, alongside other artists Andrew Pearson, Sally James Thomas, Philippine Sowerby and Sue Hiley Harris.
For decades, Colwell has worked with a quiet, consistent focus on durability, repairability and human movement — long before sustainability became a design agenda. His furniture is lightweight yet structurally rigorous, relying on geometry rather than mass, and designed to remain useful across generations.
At the centre of the exhibition is the first presentation of the new chair - A Chair 3.
First introduced in 2012, the original A Chair has spent over a decade in daily use — meals, conversations, and the quiet habits of everyday life gradually revealing where the design could be refined. A Chair 3 is the result of that process.
Built using Colwell’s tubular rivet construction, the chair allows the tensile strength of steam-bent ash to be fully expressed. Organised around a triangulated frame, its strength lies in geometry rather than bulk — closer in spirit to a bicycle frame than a conventional chair.
Subtle refinements to form and making have resulted in something calmer, more assured and more comfortable. Not a reinvention, but a quiet distillation of an idea shaped through time and use.
At a time when so much furniture is disposable, the exhibition asks: what happens when objects are designed to accompany a lifetime?
📍 Mid Wales Arts Centre, Caersws, SY17 5SB
🗓 22 March – 10 May 2026
- Private View: Sunday 22 March, 3–5pm
RSVP: [email protected]
Photography: Alex Ramsay
Thank you for allowing us to use your studio to shoot the chair
